Rooflight Company sponsor RIBA Conservation Awards

The Rooflight Company have sponsored the first RIBA Conservation Awards, which recognises the best examples of architectural practice in this field.

A company ethos based on maximising quality, design and development and an ongoing commitment to the issue of conservation has led specialist manufacturer the Rooflight Company to sponsor the first RIBA Conservation Awards, which recognises the best examples of architectural practice in this field.

The teams who have worked on the conservation projects celebrated by these Awards manage to balance respect for the original design with the essential upgrading necessary for contemporary standards.

Appropriately enough, it is exactly this challenge that brought the Rooflight Company into being.

Presenting the first of the RIBA Conservation Awards and commendations for the London region at a champagne reception held at the BBC Media Centre on 7th September this year was Valerie King, Managing Director of the Rooflight Company, who states: "We are delighted to be involved, as the issue of conservation is at the very core of our business, which focuses on excellence of design in order to meet architects' requirements".

"The maintenance and enhancement of conservation environments not only calls for specialised skills, it also requires the imagination to see opportunities where others see problems".

It is this type of creative thinking that has brought the company significant success with their pioneering product, the Conservation Rooflight.

Architect and company chairman Peter King explains, "As a working architect, in the past I had found it very difficult to source products that provided both the correct aesthetic appearance and the requisite level of quality and performance suitable for use in the sympathetic restoration of older buildings".

"This led to the creation of the Conservation Rooflight, which I specifically designed in order to meet the need for a product suitable for use in historic applications".

A faithful reproduction of a traditional model conforming to the highest modern standards of insulation, weather tightness and safety, the product is considered by architects, conservation officers, the National Trust and English Heritage to be the most suitable rooflight for buildings in a traditional context.

Three projects received RIBA Conservation Awards on the night: the sensitive restoration of Peter Jones London flagship store on Sloane Square by John McAslan and Partners of London; the conservation of Well's Coates' landmark Isokon Apartments; and a private house.

The latter two projects are both in Hampstead, and were both carried out by Avanti Architects Limited, also based in London, working in close consultation with English Heritage.

Projects receiving commendations on the night were the refurbishment of London's famous Hackney Empire by Tim Ronalds Architects, Danson House in Bexleyheath by Purcell Miller Tritton, the new Study Centre at the Royal Geographical Society by Studio Downie Architects, and Chandos House in London by ESA Architecture.

A full list of award-winning and commended conservation projects is available by contacting Jonathan Morrison at the RIBA Press Office.

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